Tutu Fellows

Peter Biar Ajak PhD

Occupational Information

Occupation: Political and human rights activist

Occupational Position: Political analyst and government advisor, CEO of South Sudan Wrestling Entertainment

Professional History

Peter Biar Ajak is the coordinator of South Sudan Young Leaders Forum; Senior Adviser for the International Growth Centre; and Founder of the Juba-based Centre for Strategic Analyses and Research. He is also the CEO of South Sudan Wrestling Entertainment, a nonprofit that uses the indigenous sport of wrestling to promote peace among South Sudan’s tribes. Peter was previously the World Bank In-Country Economist in South Sudan; and also previously, the Coordinator of Policy and Strategy in the Office of the Minister of National Security in the Office of the President, where he served, among other things, as the Secretary and the Spokesman for the committees that drafted South Sudan’s White Paper on Intelligence & National Security, the National Security Act, and the National Security Policy and Strategy.

In his work for South Sudan, he was instrumental in the development of the South Sudan Development Plan; the South Sudan Growth Strategy; and South Sudan Vision 2040, among others.

Peter is a member of the SPLM Economic Taskforce, the ruling party’s highest economic policymaking body. His op-eds and interviews have appeared in the New York Times, Foreign Policy, BBC, Al Jazeera, and CNN among other sources. He is one of the Atlantic Council’s Millennium Fellows.

Qualifications

BA (Economics) from LaSalle UniversityMPA/ID from Harvard UniversityPhD in Politics and International Studies from Cambridge University